Miley Cyrus has twerked her way out of being associated with Disney, but the singer/actress has no ill will for her former employer.

In actuality, the former "Hannah Montana" star, who built her fame with Disney's once-popular show, has gratitude for the House of Mouse.

"You know, I’m really thankful that I started on Disney," she tells Elle magazine in its May issue, which she also covers. "I got the most intense training. There’s times where I wish I could have just started as a new artist, but the world has kind of allowed me to do that. I feel really lucky - a lot of kid stars get all crazy or stuck in what they were, so they can’t actually become what they’re meant to be."

Right around the time Cyrus was shedding her Disney past in earnest, she was going through another separation: a breakup with former fiance Liam Hemsworth.

"When I was with him or when I was on Disney, the thing that gave me the most anxiety was not knowing what to do with myself when Disney wasn’t there to carry me anymore or if I didn’t have him," Cyrus says. "And now I’m free of both of those things, and I’m fine. Like, I lay in bed at night by myself and I’m totally okay, and that’s so much stronger than the person three years ago, who would have thought they would have died if they didn’t have a boyfriend."

Yet the stronger Cyrus has been dealing with a tough issue in the past week after with the death of her dog, Floyd.

Cyrus posted on April 2 that her pup had passed away, leaving her so heartbroken that she incorporated a giant statue of the pet into a recent concert in Brooklyn.

“I wanna sleep but all I can do is cry. I never wanna go home to a house where Floyd isnt running & playing. how do I get thru this," she tweeted on April 5. “I feel physically sick & I am so emotionally and physically exhausted."

To try to ease some of her daughter's heartache, Tish Cyrus gifted the 21-year-old with a new puppy.

Unfortunately, Cyrus is still in "excruciating pain," as she tweeted on April 7, although that could have been because she's also come down with the flu. The singer had to cancel her April 7 appearance in Charlotte, North Carolina on doctor's orders to rest.